In a system where hierarchical class-based objects are stored using a database, a hierarchy of database tables are associated with corresponding objects in the object hierarchy of the hierarchical class-based object. The attributes of the objects of the hierarchical class-based object are then able to be stored in a corresponding database table in the hierarchy of database tables. Storing the hierarchical class-based object in a database allows database functionality to be used. For example, attributes of the hierarchical class-based object can be searched using the databases search capability. However, accessing a desired attribute in the hierarchy of database tables can be time consuming as the system starts its database access at one table (e.g., at the base table corresponding to the top of the object and database table hierarchies) and walks the hierarchy until the table location of the desired attribute is reached. Also, each attribute is typically stored in a column of the database table where each row corresponds to an instance of the object in the system so that database memory space is taken up by allocating a location for each attribute of each object instance in a table in the database.